Checking in with Alternate Davids

Hi all, today ought to be a post for the Astral Chronicles, but I wasn’t far enough ahead, and the Election still looms large.

Here at Comparative Geeks, we often talk about the present and the world in geeky terms, so I figured this should be no different. So let’s take a break from present-day David, from me (and my webcomicing ways), and let’s check in with some possible alternate Davids. The mes I could have been.

The most obvious alternate me is the starving artist me, the one who out of college tried to start a writing career – the one I suppose in some ways I am still trying to be, just the long way around. You know, without the starving.

This me was likely an ex-pat for a while (I was basically adopted by my friends while in England), but that didn’t work out long term. That me is thoroughly troubled by the Brexit vote, and probably gets most of his news from the BBC.

This David was probably a Bernie supporter (at least, based on who this David’s best friend is). Meaning this David has been upset for a while, so maybe he would be pretty even keel right now.

I also hope that this David would approve of the webcomic, not gonna lie… I’m not sure this David would have gotten back into comics, though he would have kept reading webcomics. But I’m not sure he would be creating one – he would be working on novels.

Oh, and he would be totally cool with the idea of alternate reality mes… probably would have tried writing about alternate realities.

Then there’s the alternate reality David that kept studying history. If one of my peers in that is any measure, I would only just have started as a professor this fall. That feels like a really tenuous position, and one in which I would not feel like going out on a limb politically… But it’s also a David who would be all over the historical parallels playing out in the nation right now.

It also probably means I wouldn’t have started much writing yet, nor potentially a family (or at least kids). This David would probably be really annoyed that now – when the rest of his life was supposed to get started – there was so much uncertainty about the future.

There’s even the alternate reality David that had considered being a pastor. When that David told his pastor and associate pastor, they laughed in his face, so it was a short-lived possible future… still, it’s one I’ve thought of.

I wonder, as a pastor, how this David would be reacting to what’s going on. To the anger and fear and hate. To the parishioners whose candidate won; to the parishioners whose candidates lost. Maybe I’ve been wondering this because I kind of want to go talk to my pastor and see what he would say (especially since he’s also a history teacher).

This David would have led the most different life from what I’ve lived now, and that makes it the hardest to guess about this David. Potentially just apolitical. Either way, there would be a lot of emotions that would be riding high that would need some pastoral help!

And finally, back to me again. It’s probably easy to say that the defining attribute in my life, in me turning out this way, and decisions made, is meeting and forming a relationship (and a life) with Holly. It’s a good life. I’m writing and storytelling (though again, not today, sorry). We have a wonderful little Geek Baby Toddler. Might even find myself in a tenure faculty position soon.

As to a reaction to the election, I think it would fit with this post to say I’m feeling a bit fractured. To help explain, though, allow me to perhaps share this that I’ve seen floating around the Internet:

This is the supposed “if only Millennials voted” Electoral College map. Which in a lot of ways, helps me understand something about the echo chamber I’ve been agonizing about, and feeling like maybe I’m sheltering myself, or experiencing confirmation bias, or something. And on a macro level, yeah, maybe I am experiencing all of that. Because my whole generation seems to be of a like mind to some extent. Certainly in their shock and reaction after the election.

And I’m flickering between all these other possible mes, the outsider, the alarmist, the reconciler… and I’m here, somewhere between all those states. Maybe you are too. There’s a lot of ways our lives can go, but for the here and now, this is the world we have.

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